Hendon returned to North London in the early hours of Tuesday morning after yet another pointless return from a Ryman League Premier Division fixture they had a good chance of winning. One lapse of concentration in the 75th minute the Greens' Ryman League match at the Buzzlines Stadium was enough to give Folkestone Invicta all three points.

The Greens made wholesale changes following last week's London Senior Cup defeat at Wealdstone. Richard Wilmot, Danny Rouco, Ross Pickett and Danny Edwards came in for Anthony O'Connor, Craig Vargas - who has left the club to join BGB Southern League Windsor & Eton - Jamie Busby and Ian Hilaire, while the defence was reshuffled to move Ryan Wharton and Wayne O'Sullivan to full-back and James Parker and Sam Page in the middle of the defence. Newcomer Harry Wheeler, a former member of the Stevenage Borough Youth Academy, was on the bench, along with O'Connor, Hilaire, Adilson Lopes and Jazz Rose.

Folkestone had much the better of the first half in terms of possession, but there were very few occasions when it looked likely that they were going to score. Striker Ellis Remy, who bagged a hat-trick in Invicta's last match, never looked like repeating the feat. The only efforts on target were a couple of low, near-post strikes, which were easily dealt with by Wilmot.

Hendon didn't really look like scoring in the first half and when the half-time whistle blew, there was no doubt it was the Greens who were the happier to escape to the sanctuary of the dressing rooms.

Buoyed by their first half clean sheet, Hendon began the second half brightly. There were no of the early half horrors that have been so devastating in recent League matches and, indeed, it was the Greens who looked the more likely to make the breakthrough.

Dean Green had a great chance in a one-on-one with Tony Kessell, but the big goalkeeper got enough of his body on the ball to block Green's shot and send into the side-netting, although fans on one side of the ground thought the ball had squeezed inside the post until the lack of reaction on the pitch told them otherwise.

Rouco and Lee O'Leary both put themselves into good positions, but with possibly better options being passes to open teammates they elected to shoot and neither was able to hit the target.

But the best chance of the game fell to Pickett. Kessell came for a cross, but didn't gather it cleanly, fumbling the ball at the feet of the striker. To be fair to Pickett, he didn't have time to set himself for a strike, but the ball still ballooned over the crossbar from about three yards in front of the goal.

And this move proved to be so costly in the 75th minute, when O'Sullivan cleared a ball off a Folkestone attacker, but the throw-in went Invicta's way. A free kick was then conceded right by the corner flag.

Instead of the ball being crossed into the penalty area, however, it was played to the corner of the penalty area, where James Everitt delivered a low first-time cross. Fastest to react was Folkestone skipper Adam FLANAGAN, who took the ball past his marker Rakatahr Hudson and fired into the roof of the net.

Almost immediately, Hendon made a double change, introducing Lopes and Hilaire for the tiring Rouco and Edwards. A couple of half-chances were created, but the Invicta defence held out for the victory.

"I am absolutely gutted," said manager Gary McCann. "We should have had the throw-in in the lead up to the goal, but it was still one moment's lack of concentration that cost us. In the second half we battered them but couldn't score. It has been the story of our season."